Mobile telephones have achieved tremendous popularity among consumers. Many, if not most, consumers own at least one mobile telephone, some of those consumers replacing the traditional landline completely therewith. As such, improvements in capability and functionality of these devices have been met with eager approval. For example, these devices commonly include the most advanced display and image processing technologies as well as text messaging and photographing capabilities. Transforming digital images captured by these devices into a hard-copy format, however, generally has not been available to the consumer in a manner that matches the mobility of these devices. Current desktop printing solutions may be impractical or undesirable options for those consumers who want high-quality printing on the fly.
Traditional printing devices rely on a mechanically operated carriage to transport a print head in a linear direction as other mechanics advance a medium in an orthogonal direction. As the print head moves over the medium an image may be laid down. Portable printers have been developed through technologies that reduce the size of the operating mechanics. However, the principles of providing relative movement between the print head and medium remain the same as traditional printing devices. Accordingly, these mechanics limit the reduction of size of the printer as well as the material that may be used as the medium.
Handheld printing devices have been developed that ostensibly allow an operator to manipulate a handheld device over a medium in order to print an image onto the medium. However, these devices are challenged by the unpredictable and nonlinear movement of the device by the operator. The variations of operator movement make it difficult to determine the precise location of the print head. This type of positioning error may have deleterious effects of the quality of the printed image. This is especially the case for relatively large print jobs, as the positioning error may accumulate in a compounded manner over the entire print operation.